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Ryan and Roxanne were friends for six years before they slid out of “purely platonic” territory. After they met in Israel in 2006, he moved back to his native Canada, and she to NYC, keeping in touch every few months.
But, during what was supposed to be a quick vacation for Ryan in the Big Apple (from shooting a TV show in the Democratic Republic of Congo), “things just changed,” Roxanne said. He extended his stay, and the two officially became a couple. After a whirlwind week, Ryan had to return to his job, so the pair treaded through a month of nightly Skype dates — “We’d watch a movie together, or cook together” — when she finally flew out to visit him.
“After six days of talking about everything we could imagine, he looked at me mid-conversation and just said, ‘We're going to get married, aren't we?’ I responded ‘Yep, I'm pretty sure we are.’ It was kind of surreal, but also was the most organic progression of a relationship I'd ever had.”
While they originally planned a fall wedding, which would allow enough time to fly in Roxanne's sister from Ecuador, and their best friend from England, the two had the wild idea to speed it up by six months — they ended up tying the knot in April with just 18 days of preparation. Luckily, they both made it just in time.
This, of course, required a lot of coordination: “We enlisted the help of our closest friends in New York in finding a venue, creating 300-foot homemade bunting banner, decorating tables, creating floral arrangements, finding an emcee, and organizing transportation for guests to the after party at a bowling alley,” Roxanne said.
The photos ahead just go to show ya: Happily ever after doesn't require a long engagement.
Photographer: Negeen Sobhani.
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